Slient Nights. And Days.

08.26.2010

It seems I've had nothing to say over the past couple of weeks.

Hmm.

It's been hot. Painfully hot. Maybe that has something to do with it? It's started to cool off a bit, so maybe I'll get talkative, or is it type-ative, again?

Permalink random

The end of the World Sauna Championships?

08.09.2010

Continuing my trend of what's happening with current events, I saw that Vladimir Ladyzhensky, a Russian competitor in World Sauna Championships, had recently died. Not just died, but died during the World Sauna Championships! If you're like me, the first thing that popped into your head was "what is a World Sauna Championship?"

It's sitting in a hot tub. At 230° to begin with.

Although the Championships (there are men and women categories) have been around since 1999, the accident which caused the death of Ladyzhensky and injured Timo Kaukonen may bring the competition to and end. While it's easy to poke fun at people seeing who can sit in boiling water the longest, how different is it from the endurance stunts performed by Criss Angel or David Blaine? Makes we want to go beat the train across the tracks! Blindfolded. Tied to the tracks. In a tub of boiling water.

But the water would only be at 229°.

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Current Events

08.06.2010

For a commentary on current events, I turn you to Republican Gubernatorial candidate Basil Marceaux and Huntsville Celebrity Anoine Dodson.

The staff here at Russellmania now returns you to your normal interweb browsing. Thank you.

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July 2010 Wrap Up Show

08.03.2010

As I just noticed the 'Mania has been update free for nigh on 2 weeks, please enjoy an End of July summary.

I arrived home 2 Saturdays ago to find that it was hot inside the house. Normally when the temps creep near 100 the A/C has a hard time keeping up, so I'm not terribly worried when the indoor thermometer reads 80. Saturday around noon it read 85. I went outside and noticed that the fan on the outside unit wasn't going *whrrr*whrrr*whrrrr*. One of my biggest fears had been realized. It was July and I had no air conditioning. I went and hid at Gina's for the night, but came back Sunday to do some chores. At some point on Sunday it reached 91 inside. Hot. Hot hot hot. Monday the A/C guy came and pumped in 3 pounds of whatever refrigerant they have to use these days and the fan started spinning and the house started getting cooler. For about 3 hours. Then the fan quit again. Tuesday the A/C guy came back and replaced the fan motor. Since then it's been nice and cool inside. Most importantly I learned I won't die if the A/C quits!

Last Tuesday was errand day, one of those errands was to get the 15K mile service on the car. The only thing other than my usual oil/rotate/balance was checking the fuel and air filters, so it wasn't as expensive as I feared. On the way back home the next day I was driving via the interstate and finally got the car over 60 when I noticed my arms hurt. They hurt because I had a death grip on the steering wheel that was wobbling back and forth. Seems I was the victim of a bad balance job. I took the car back to the tire place the next day and they were able to fix it up in about 15 minutes.

Saturday was my social day. Saturday afternoon the kids came by for an Unsanctioned Widgey as part of Evil Mathias' belated birthday extravaganza. Special thanks go to Gina for whipping up some rotel cheese dip which was a big hit. Cheese dip seems to be very messy I learned. Not bad messy, but enough that you need some post-cheese dip cleaning on the stove afterward.

After the extravaganza was wrapped up, I made my way to Huntsville to join the boss at the final game of the season for local arena football team. We had seats down on the floor behind the end zone. Well, there were seats but we didn't really sit. You have to be on your toes when these guys are running around. One pass went over our heads and about 5 of us reached up/back/over for the ball. When I looked back to where I had been standing by the wall there was a football player laying there.

Sunday I made a dent in my washing chores (dishes, clothes, me) before going over to Gina's and watching Brooklyn's Finest. Although I get a lot of movies, the previews of this one led me to think the re-watchability was low. Now that I've watched it, I can confirm that is the case. The movie has a good ending, it just takes a long time to get there.

Now to see if I can do better with the updates in August.

Permalink boardgames rambling

Random Surfing

07.19.2010

I sometimes wonder what leads me down a path of web-surfing to an eventual laugh, guffaw, or snicker. I paid attention to that path this morning, but it doesn't make a lot of sense.

In looking at Amazon's DVD Gold Box deals they listed an amalgamation of 70's TV show first seasons, including What's Happening and What's Happening Now. Seeing those 2 advertised, I couldn't remember if Fred Rerun Berry was dead or alive, so I took a trip to Wikipedia to find out (died in 2003). While reading a about Fred Rerun, while I was there, I saw that he was a member of The Lockers. While reading about The Lockers on their site, I came across the following answer for What is a Locker?:

"A" LOCKER has been ,For decades anyone who subscribes to the Locking lifestyle and is a student of the dance of Locking...

That is the worse definition of anything I have ever seen. The syntax just throws it over the edge of being bad.

This definition can be used for so many other things. "A" NERD has been, for eons anyone who subscribes to the nerd lifestyle and is a student of the art of Nerding. Does Bill Clinton know about this? It could be that this is so stupid it's genius!

Permalink movies/tv/dvd rambling